Saturday, December 17, 2011

Wandering the Desert Rocks

A couple months ago, in October, my friend and I explored a canyon outside of Moab, UT. It was our first canyon, and pretty fun.

Exploring the Desert

Sometimes I catch fish and eat gummy worms

Here's a video of me on the h. fork with my man D_man Gates. I landed a pretty nice trout and ate some pretty awesome gummy bears.

H Fork

Monday, September 5, 2011

O Happy Days

P1020642

This weekend was an interesting one. I went down to Manti, UT with my dad for the archery deer hunt. My family has roots in San Pete county and it has been a while since I've been down there, so I was glad to be back in the area. It has been an especially long time since I've been on the mountain and it felt really good to be up there. The interesting part is the last stop of our trip. We stopped by to see a good friend of mine who has been diagnosed with cancer, serious cancer. I don't get to see him that often, so we wanted to stop by to say hello... and goodbye.

He's 90 years old, so treatment isn't really much of an option. His only option is to "lay here and wait it out" as he put it. I found it odd how matter of fact he put it, and also how comfortable he was with it. I've never had a conversation with somebody before, knowing very well that its probably gonna be my last. It was a strange feeling. The conversation was wonderful, he was still the same old man I remembered, minus the part where he was flat on his back and had oxygen tubes draped across his face. His uncanny way with words, and his humor, were still as sharp as ever. The fact that this was the last time I would see him didn't really set in until we said our goodbyes and left his room, him unable to accompany us out. I didn't want to leave. When I shook his hand on our exit, I never wanted to let go. I wanted to wait it out with him until the end.

I say he's a good friend of mine, and I consider him as such, but in reality I don't know him all that well. I'm 23 years old, he's 90. He's one of the last people from the 'old world' that I will ever know. I've been around him maybe a dozen times, but in the limited time I've been around him, he's had an amazing impact on me. More than I thought until now.

I'm going to miss him.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Get Lost!


Get Lost! by wasatch_marx
Get Lost!, a photo by wasatch_marx on Flickr.

Dan and I made a quick run up to the Uintas Thursday night. We dubbed it "Mosquito Camp" it was insane. Never have I seen so many of those bastards. Nevertheless it was an awesome and much needed trip. We discovered a rumored lake that had excellent Cutthroat fishing, had some close encounters with some deer, and were able to watch the meteor shower! Video footage coming soon.. hopefully.

Twilight

Twilight by wasatch_marx
Twilight, a photo by wasatch_marx on Flickr.

Better late than never I guess.... the other week my friend and I made a quick hike up at Brighton. I've never done it, and so it seemed like something that should happen. The flowers were beautiful up there and it was a nice easy getawayfromthecity for a couple hours. Dan

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Hooked Up

Hooked Up by wasatch_marx
Hooked Up, a photo by wasatch_marx on Flickr.

^^ Dan getting hooked up! ^^

Went fishing for the first time in a minute the other day with Dan the man. Caught some fish but nothing spectacular. #shouldhavehitthedrakehatch

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Baldy Chute Brah

Watching the Avalanche

I did a nice tour Saturday morning (May 21st!!!) with Dan. It started out a little late, but turned into a wonderful day. Alta Ski resort has shut its chairs down for the season, which leaves the mountain open to those willing to climb it. Dan and I are two of many. We left the truck a little after 8:30 am and began our climb. It was a beautiful day (which resulted in my face getting fried!) for a tour and the snow actually turned out to be pretty good. We decided to go all the way up to the top of Mt. Baldy. On our way we ran into a Snowbird ski patroller who we stopped and chatted with for a minute. Shortly after we heard a very loud noise, I looked across the canyon and saw the aftermath of an avalanche spewing over the Hellgate cliffs! Dan and I quickly busted out our cameras and I stretched my 55mm lens to its max trying to get a decent photo. It continued to release a few times an hour for the rest of the time we were up there. Neat! (but scary at the same time). We were almost to the top when Dan's dynafits started giving him fits on the icy top, so he decided to boot the rest of the way up. I skinned, which I'm not sure was the best idea, but I made it.
Once at the top, we looked around for a second while we transitioned and then it was time for the descent! Dan went first and laid down a nice line in the chute, straight-lined the bottom, and stopped in a clump of trees to get some photos of my ride. I put some nice turns down for about half of the chute and then pretty much straight-lined the rest... that is until things got a little hairy and I did a couple cartwheels. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but somehow my weight got shifted really far forward and a lanyard on my glove actually got caught on my binding, I pulled real hard, and actually snapped the lanyard, but it was to late. Classic.. nosedive, airborne cartwheels, and then kablammo! He's got some cool shots of the wreckage that you can check out here. Luckily the snow was soft enough that I didn't sustain any injuries, it was a hell of a crash though! Once I met up with Dan, we party-rode the rest of the run back down to the car, passing a group of snow-shoe-ers.

Watching the AvalancheAvalanche on HellgateLittle Cottonwood and the PheifAvalanche over the CliffsDan the ManMe.. looking stupid as always.
At the Parking LotPark and Ride and the Mouth


Baldy Chute, a set on Flickr.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Over and Out

Spring semester 2011 is officially over! After three days that were very taxing, both physically and mentally, I have completed my finals and am done with this semester. Today was calculus and physics. Calculus was easy, but my hell was that physics exam hard! I mean, I thought it would be difficult and knew that I didn't fully understand everything that had happened this semester, but this exam really put into perspective how much I didn't retain from this semester. All well, everyone else had a difficult time with it, all I can do at this point is hope for a low average and hope that I beat it. Time will tell. One thing that always bothers me about the end of semesters is that you never typically find out how you did on anything from about the last month or so; you don't know how you did on your assignments, you don't know how you did on your projects, and you don't know how you did on your final exams. You just get your grades when they are posted. Kind of frustrating. Anyways, I'm exhausted and shouldn't have even began writing this, but I did, and now it's done. Time for sleep!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Finally

Today I had my first of three finals.. sadly this was the easy one, but it went well. It was in my mechanical engineering course. Even though this one went well, I'm glad to have it out of the way. My two remaining finals are in Calculus and Engineering Physics. Tomorrow is going to be a long and arduous day of studying that I'm not particularly looking forward to. I just need to keep telling myself that in a day and a half I will be a free man... for about a week and a half before summer semester begins. :/ Hopefully I can get some fishing and biking in... maybe even some splitboarding!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

April Showers Bring Me Powder!!

Argenta

It snowed quite a bit in this, the last week of april. Over the night of April 29th it dumped about a foot and a half of low density powder. Although I was reluctant, Dan talked me into doing a tour. I said I had other things to do, which I did, I have three finals next week. But, I went anyways... and it was amazing!! Such a good day. We skinned up Argenta, which is a couple thousand vertical feet, we ascended the head wall and took a peak down a chute that we wanted to do. It looked a little sketchy so we decided to continue along the ridge and take a peak at the next one. Along the way we got a view down the East Couloir of Kessler, which was pretty stellar. We continued along the ridge line and dropped down one of the chutes. The snow was awesome and it was such a fun run. Here's a little multimedia display for you.. and the GoPro's splitboarding test-run!


ArgentaUpUpMore UpTaking Care of Business
TreeTreesSmile!A View looking ThroughArgentaDan the Man
AngularCornices

Splitboarding, a set on Flickr.

Argenta from Darin.

Friday, April 29, 2011

HDR

Park Bldg
I've started to delve into the imaginary world that is HDR. Although not entirely sure how I feel about it, I like what is happening to my photos so maybe I'll stick with it for a while. HDR basically makes photos look really badass and really fake... errr surreal, yeah... like a painting. The effect is really neat and especially beneficial for me, I say this because I feel like through the miracle of post processing very amateur photographers, such as myself, are able to get some pretty descent looking results. I guess it will just up the level for everybody else, set the bar even higher. I'm all for progression, and I have seen some truly amazing photographs that would not be possible save HDR. Please excuse the Photomatix watermarks as I need to get my full license, but here is what I've been able to do so far:

ParkCampusBeginner HDR

HDR, a set on Flickr.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

U of You: Night Terrors

Bold
Tonight Dan and I decided to play photographer and I must admit it was pretty fun. I got home from work shortly after ten and called Dan. We BSed for a while and got on the subject of photography, mainly photography equipment. I wasn't ready to turn in for the night so he suggested we go and shoot some photos. I agreed. Without any destination we headed out and decided downtown would offer us the most. The University of Utah has some really neat buildings and lighting, so I suggested we go there. Dan agreed and that's where we spent the next several hours, slowly wandering around the campus, taking photos. I go to the University and it has always been on my mind to capture it through the lens. Urban photography has seemed sort of odd to me up until now. I don't know how to word it or explain it, other than i'm typically more of a mountain type of guy, and as such have viewed city photography as such a different sort, which it is. Not better or worse, just different. The moral of my stupid story is that I had a lot of fun and will hopefully shoot more of this style or photography more often. Here's the goods.

B&@DanMean MugginCreeplyGhostlyA Symmetric view of U
DarkBoldRoundhouseLight BridgeDan in the positionWalk
CircumetricalSideways WalkHEBShooting TulipsNice RackHaning Out
Big PineySkyboundBlossomingBlossomingZen GardenTables

U of You, a set on Flickr.